Monday, 28 December 2009

Basically, there were two sides to the world. There was the entire computer games software industry engaged in a tremendous effort to stamp out piracy, and there was Wobbler. Currently, Wobbler was in front. -- (Terry Pratchett, Only You Can Save Mankind)

Legion of xXDEATHXx have set up shop next door in Sotrenzur, quite a few of the sneaky bastards with a Titan at a POS. They dropped a Remote Rep battleship gang on us yesterday in which Nanny Ogg went out in a blaze of glory.

So when one of their pilots appears in local in a Megathron, the Admiral Akbar senses started tingling. Laneth really wanted to engage but the rest of us were just expecting to get dropped again but a plan was devised to deal with the impending danger and a rather ingenious plan it was.

A rather crazy pilot would tackle the Megathron, who had quite conveniently warped to a belt, more evidence suggesting a trap, while tackled the suport in battleships and commandships would warp in at range and BBQ the Mega.

The tackler would be flying a Rifter, get in close with afterburner glowing whilst making sure the Mega stayed put.

So it was that I warped in, fortunately for me the Mega had warped in at zero and made my life very easy. I locked him up, set a tight 500metre orbit and proceeded to lay the tackle down. Webbed and scrammed he was now staying put, till he or I died. He locked me up and started to fire, his blasters not able to track my rather fabulous Rifter, he launched a flight of Ogre IIs, but they too had trouble hitting me, being rather the cautious fella that I am, I started to shoot the Ogres, which he duly scooped.

Dogz, Laneth, Kurtz and Nomi warped in at range and engage, the Mega starts to drop into armour. Another xXDEATHXx pilot enters local, in a Tempest and warps in at range, close to my support, again, the threat of Titan Bridge means my support warps out, all the while I'm buzzing around the Mega like a mad fat kid at an all you can eat candy buffet.

Tempest deploys Valkyrie IIs, a more direct threat to my Rifter, so I lock them up and start popping them one by one. Support decides they're not letting me have this kill alone and warp back in at range, this is made easier by the fact the Tempest is right on top of me now and has me webbed.

Saturday, 26 December 2009

Piracy, as with everything in New Eden, doesn't just happen overnight, sometimes there is a lot of waiting.

There has been a peculiar visitor in recent weeks to Gusandall, a pilot who seemingly never undocked. No one knows when or how he arrived, what he was flying or what his intentions were.

So when another member of the visitors corp appeared in local I was much intrigued. The visitors corp mate had warped to the station in his pod, curious, but my curiosity turned into the assumption that the corp mate was scouting and when I saw the visitor disappear off the station registry I knew it was time, I raced to my Bhaalgorn, appropriately christened Havelock Vetinari.

The visitor had undocked in an Abaddon, a most formidable battleship but one I'm very familiar with myself. It is very hungry for capacitor to fuel its mighty Mega Pulse lasers and my choice of the Bhaalgorn was perfect. I undocked and immediately started to lock the visitor but just before it resolved he warped off in the direction of the Eifer gate, I followed, along with a few of the Gus locals who were quite keen to make the acquaintance of our mysterious visitor.

The massive Bhaalgorn exits warp on the Eifer gate, just in time to watch the visitor jump out. How rude, leaving without saying word one to us... I follow, ready to tackle and engage.

I enter Eifer and the visitor no longer keen on our hospitality drops gate cloak and hastily tries to get into warp, 27km away I start to lock, it resolves and my warp disruptor kicks in, dual webs reach out and slow him to a crawl, energy neutralisers bridge the gap and drain him dry, mega pulse lasers scorch the very space around them, a flight of combat drones stream out from my drone bay and head in for the kill.

I'm joined by some of the Gusandall locals, most upset that our visitor didn't take the time to get to know us, the Abaddon is no longer shooting, it's lasers hungry for cap it no longer has, it starts to break up, gas and fuel venting into space, it violently explodes amidst the onslaught.I'd say good fight but to be fair he stood very little chance. Unlucky.

Next time, say hi, get to know us, we're really friendly folk :)

AYAYAYAYAYAY

Piracy is not just perpetuated in low security space, it can happen anywhere, even where you think you're safe. With this in mind, Nomi had decided a little trip to highsec would cheer the locals up. I grabbed a Thrasher from the corp hangar, fitted it with loot from some unfortunate victim, insured it and joined the small gang of trouble makers in Eifer.

Our mark was being lined up by a friend of Nomi, a Hulk peacefully mining in an ice belt. Once in place we warped to the gate, jumped in, held cloak till Nomi gang warped us to the Hulk's demise. guns set to overload, I'd be lucky to get a second volley off on this kamikaze run.

We land, lock and pop the hulk, CONCORD police ships warp in and punish us for our dastardly deed even as we giggle like little children. Nomi's friend scoops the loot, which is poor and we head back to the safety of lowsec in our pods.

Good times.

Havelock was used last night to bring Hogswatch cheer to a lucky Rattlesnake pilot who was fortunate to enough to join us in Gus for the festivities. A curious fit to say the least.

I hope everyone has had a good festive season and I for one look forward to the new year.

Monday, 21 December 2009

The gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that's where they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go. Which they won't do if they don't know about it. This explains why it is so important to shoot missionaries on sight.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

Gusandall... A small system in Heimatar low security space, one station, 5 stargates, 8 planets, 8 asteroid belts and home to a bunch of delinquents.

A small Cult of War gang was spotted in Ingunn: Megathron, Typhoon and two Guardians. A nice compact gang. A few of the locals were spoiling for a fight, unsure of our numbers it was decided that we didn't want to fight on a gate or the station.

So what was the plan? The plan was to drop some bait in belt 1-1.

Who would be the bait?

Moi :D

Nanny Ogg drops out of warp in belt 1-1 and starts to align back to the station. The Megathron warps to the station to see what's stirring but warps to the Ingunn gate as it seems the locals are seemingly asleep.

Kashmyta > 1-1 for fightz

Well, if that doesn't get their attention, nothing will :)

Nanny Ogg is slow boating in the direction of the station when the Megathron bursts out of warp at zero in the belt, 23 km away. I make sure I have the right bits of glass loaded and lock the Mega up, he starts to close as his friends jump in, my friends start their warp in.

Nanny Ogg's Mega Pulse lasers start to chew into the Mega as he desperately tries to close the distance, he launches a flight of Ogre IIs, I launch a flight of Warrior IIs to kill them. The Mega inches closer, webbed from about 13km away it's slow going for him trying to catch the slow Nanny Ogg.

Typhoon drops out of warp, as does the rest of the locals, the two logistics ships the last to get to the belt, but it's already too late for the Mega pilot, he's venting gas and fuel into space and is not long for this universe. A massive explosion shakes the Megathron to its very hull and focus shifts to the Typhoon, light attack drones and ecm drones zoom off to deal with the logistics ships.

The Phoon folds and all that is left is to deal with the two Guardians which we are very successful in doing.

By the time the dust settles it seems we had rather more fire power than first anticipated but it was a very well executed fight on our part.

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point- of-view is seldom necessary. -- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

I was lounging around Eifer in my Rifter when I spotted a Rifter pilot from earlier in the evening.

"BX, 1v1?"

He said no as he wasn't in a Rifter but would go get one and be right back \o/

I waited in my usual spot and was pleased to see him enter local again, he asked where and I said planet 1 if it suited him. I warped to planet 1 after he confirmed that was good and was greeted by a beautiful red and black magma planet, a nice backdrop for our little duel.

He warped in at 70km and started to close, I did the same and soon we were locked in deadly battle, we matched each other blow for blow until we hit structure and then I was in my Pod, I warped out and said "good fight" in local before heading home for some much needed sleep.

Now there's a few things I could have done better:

• When closing his speed was only 800 odd m/s, it took him a while to get up to speed too, so I should have surmised he had armour rigs, trimarks being the most likely, with this in mind I should have been able to dictate range better and should have switched to Barrage and kept a good 7km between us.

• I was too close in, settling for a 3km engagement range instead of my usual 5-7km.

• Don't be over confident, complacency is your worst enemy and is a mistake I'm making far too often for my liking.

Fitting wise I'm still happy with my loadout, BX was running Trimarks and most likely a damage control because up until about 75% structure we were neck and neck. I prefer my lows as this fight is proof that at point blank there's litterally very little between the two. Smarter flying on my part would have probably helped but props to BXDRED, he fought well and earned the win.

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

I'm a big fan of EVE PvP videos and as such have quite a large collection of various pilots doing there thing. I've always wanted to do one of my own but lack the the brains to remember to hit record and the kung fu of editing.

However there are plenty of quality videos out there and I thought I'd take the time to promote a fantastic video by Fon Revedhort called The Rocket Witchcraftwhich I discovered last night.

It showcases some amazing piloting and a certain bravado which is lacking recently in EVE and is well worth the download.

Sunday, 13 December 2009

FMR POS is being unanchored, Covenant warp in and fry the hauler, they camp while the tower unanchors, Exalted warp in and chase Covenant off, we jump in cause two Proteus and a bunch of stuff to kill plus tower to shibby make us happy in pants, Exalted fuck off as we land but try to jack the tower with Prorator. Prorator is popped which is kind of fortunate as it drops the cargo expander our hauler needs to secret away the tower. Tower unanchors but hauler is still too small (yes, we fail at hauling) so another hauler is dispatched to grab the tower while we chill in space.

Eventually we shibby the tower and go home laughing.

Later in the evening we would try and fail to engage a rather decent Faction Warfare gang, we managed two kills but over-zealous points on the two we got means the rest got away, c'est la vie

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Above the hearth was a huge pokerwork sign saying "Mother". No tyrant in the whole history of the world had ever achieved a domination so complete. -- (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters)

Keira lost an Ishtar to Angel Annex, silly girl. Other than that been a lazy day, been busy doing other things.

However when my covops friend reported a Cynabal engaging some of the Gusandall crew outside the station I just had to undock. I grabbed a Harbinger and joined in. Sorry Rai, too juicy a kill to refuse.

The highlight of the night for me was when a Typhoon decided to plant itself on the Gus station and antagonise the locals. Scouts had already reported he had an Armageddon, a Hyperion and a Loki waiting in nearby systems.

So a small fleet was hastily gathered of the local gentry, the affront to our Piratiness not to be forgiven lightly. Nomi undocked a carrier to keep their attention.

nominruil > oknominruil > lets rumble?Zephirz > obviiously the carrier >.>nominruil > ok send in the fleetnominruil > we are readyZephirz > arent you a tough guy now..Zephirz > its fucking sad tbh..Kane Rizzel > get the hyp and loki to jump inZephirz > and what? watch you undock anotehr 2 carriers? or watch you dockup?>nominruil > nah we gonna get the erebus insteadZephirz > yea really tough..Zephirz > and than call me out for baiting >.>nominruil > I know i amZephirz > rather dissapointed nowZephirz > so yea, you gonna keep wasting my time or are you going to dockup again?Kane Rizzel > depeends on when you call all your buddiesnominruil > hrm.. you don't have a 40 man blob like we expectedZephirz > noZephirz > i dont need that shitKane Rizzel > hyp, loki, geddon and one cloakyZephirz > i dont have carriers on standby eitherZephirz > lolZephirz > wanna see my cloaky?\Zephirz > there he is

I undocked in Nanny Ogg, the Abaddon, locked up the Phoon and waited to see if he'd engage.

Kane Rizzel > so you want sents on your side too or you want to make this a more interesting fightZephirz > id love to make this a more interesting fightgeneral dogzbody > p1Zephirz > rgrZephirz > so undock thanZephirz > not waiting for you to warp yout carrier to the planetgeneral dogzbody > im in pos 1 secgeneral dogzbody > lol like were that stupidcheesyhead > the general stupidity of a low sec persona is pretty infinate

Unfortunately their bravado, now drained meant they were making a dash for it.

The Hyp, Geddon and Loki jumped in and went towards Sotrenzur, the Typhoon warped to Ingunn, They were trying to outflank us in an area we are infinitely familiar with. So we warped to the Ingunn gate, scouts reporting the Hyp, Geddon and Loki waiting on the other side, one of us engaged the Phoon to force him through, he jumped and we followed.

It was game time, Hyperion was our primary, we uncloaked and engaged, I was primaried, We switched to the Phoon and just before it went down they switched target to moliboi in a Geddon as Nanny Ogg's skirt was a bit too much for them. Phoon explodes, moliboi's Geddon exlodes, we drop the Hyp rather sharpish and pick on the Loki as it's scrammed, webbed and about to lose some SP. As it explodes the Geddon jumps out rather wisely and we are left victorious over the field of battle.

Sunday, 6 December 2009

Been watching the Mean Corp killboard and was a little impressed and a lot jealous of a Rorqual kill in a belt and later a Nidhoggur kill, been a while since I was involved in any Capital kills.

It's always good to use a new ship, especially if it's a little on the bling side. It is with this in mind I christened two new battleships into the NovaKane fleet.

The first is the Armageddon Navy Issue, a new vessel in the EVE universe, an absolute beast of a ship, massive DPS and a fair bit of armour. As I mentioned before I'm rather enjoying flying battleships, as slow as they are they just seem more... FUCKING BOOM.

Armageddon Navy Issue An improved version of the feared Armageddon-class battleship, this vessel is probably one of the deadliest war machines ever built by the hand of man. Commanding one is among the greatest honors one can attain in the Amarr Empire, and suffering the fury of its turret batteries is surely the fastest way to reunite with the void.Amarr Battleship Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Large Energy Turret capacitor use and 5% Large Energy Turret rate of fire per level.

First blood for Good Omens came the way of a bit of Ninja on my part, the Mean crew had tackled a Myrmidon in Eifer, with a Typhoon in warp to help it out., I undocked and headed over, news that the Myrm had already gone down greeted me as I entered Eifer, I landed with the Typhoon tackled and managed to steal my way on to the killmail.

Not the most auspicious start to its career in the fleet but blood is blood.

"Chimera docked in Bundidnus, it's a kickout station"

Oh hell yeah, time to bring some more Shiny to the universe. A few days ago I pulled the trigger on something a little special, a treat to myself.

Bhaalgorn Named after a child-devouring demon of Amarrian legend, the Bhaalgornis the pride and joy of the Blood Raider cabal. Though it is known to be based on an Armageddon blueprint, the design's origin remains shrouded in mystery. Those of a superstitious persuasion whisper in the dark of eldritch ceremonies and arcane rituals, but for most people, the practical aspect of the matter will more than suffice: you see one of these blood-red horrors looming on the horizon, it's time to make yourself scarce.

Thud undocks gracefully from the Gusandall station and makes her way to join up with a hastily formed fleet, we meet up one jump outside of Bund, with a tackler waiting for the Chimera to undock.

"Chimera undocked"

"Tackled and webbed"

"Jump in and warp to tackler"

Thud lumbers into warp, the massive ship seemingly taking an age to get to where the action is but when she lands it's party time. The Chimera is locked, dual webs slow it down further as the rest of the gang engages. Heavy Energy Neutralisers reach out and start to eat away at the carriers capacitor, Mega Pulse lasers start to tear into the shields.

The Carrier is comfortable repping but soon its rep cycles start to wane as the combined neut power of the assembled fleet start to take their toll. The Chimera tries to inch its way back to the docking zone at 7m/s but an epic bump from one of the Abaddons spells the end.

The carrier is venting fuel and atmosphere into space and a massive flash illuminates the beatiful hull of Thud as the Chimera finally gives in.

A rather nice maiden kill for the Bhaalgorn.

Later Good Omens would participate in the destruction of an Abaddon in Eifer and then give me a heart attack as I jumped into highsec on the way home. I'd like to thank the Minmatar fleet for webbing me into warp on the way to a planet and back to the lowsec gate, damn sporting of them.

EVE Online and the EVE logo are the registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights are reserved worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EVE Online, the EVE logo, EVE and all associated logos and designs are the intellectual property of CCP hf. All artwork, screenshots, characters, vehicles, storylines, world facts or other recognizable features of the intellectual property relating to these trademarks are likewise the intellectual property of CCP hf. CCP hf. has granted permission to A Pirates Perspective to use EVE Online and all associated logos and designs for promotional and information purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not in any way affiliated with, A Pirates Perspective. CCP is in no way responsible for the content on or functioning of this website, nor can it be liable for any damage arising from the use of this website.